Xaviers!

Around a slight bend, chaos was ensuing.

Ghostly figures could be seen, running from point to point where crystals used to stand -- and, in some cases, where ghostly crystals could still be faintly seen, like the outline of an outline.

"This one's overloading too! We've got to get them under control!"

"What the heck is this place?"

"Too much energy buildup; we have to shunt it somewhere!"

"I can't contain it! Everybody hold on to something!"

The fragments of crystal on the ground in their cavern started glowing, as well -- as Tosh's dimensional detector started going off the scales.

"Oh cool, ghosts are on it already. That makes sense. Do we... stop them or help them? What's going on!?"

"And how do you propose we help ghosts? Wait, did they say overloading?" She looks at the glowing crystals.

Haley (of course she’d been there if her phone was on the fritz) looked around anxiously.

“I’ll see if I can...talk to them?”

She put her hand to her temple and closed her eyes, reaching out with her other hand.

”Hello? What’s happening? How can we help?”

Overloading indeed is what they said -- and the crystals flashed faster and brighter, and then...


There there was flash of white light, and an explosion that was both there and not -- enough force to blow the X-Men on their butt, but not enough force to actually damage anything or move the crystals around.

The ghostly crystals now were...well, not ghostly, as they protruded from every surface. And the ghostly figures were....not ghostly, either, as they started to pick themselves off the ground from the force of the explosion.


_________________________________________________________________

Across campus, things were going haywire. The skyline twisted and shimmered, with skyscrapers apparently blinking in and out of existence. Doors appeared and disappeared in walls that did not have rooms behind them. The dimensions of buildings twisted and turned, with different architectural styles and levels of technology jutting out at weird, impossible angles. These things weren't fading in and out gently -- they were gradually blinking in and out of existence.

At the moment, at least, the campus mostly looked like the campus they remembered here in Malden, but something was clearly, clearly wrong.

"What the hell...," Ryan swore, dusting himself off.

"Someone sound off! Give me a report! Preferably someone who has an idea of what the hell is going on."

One of the new figures picking herself up off the floor is a woman in an X-Man uniform with feathery wings held close to her back. The feathers are a wild rainbow of colors except for the feathers along the bones which are glossy black like a raven's. Her eyes are bound and her belt is carrying a foot-long cylinder that is smooth except for as single button on the side. She puts one hand to her head, "Everyone okay?" It's not clear who she's talking to.

"Oof. Remind me not to ride this one...a...gain..." Will said, glancing around in confusion, dusting off an unfamiliar X-Men uniform.

"What in the name of God has happened here..."

"What the... Will, how'd you get down here? And who're those people?" Nailah asks, dusting herself off after getting knocked on her butt.

"Who the...Nailah? Is that...is that you?"

Will blinked around, confused, and headed over to one of the crystals.

"..I don't know how to use these things. Was there some kind of like...de-aging ray, like we experienced a few months ago going on here?"

Haley groaned and pushed herself to her feet. “Ugh. Someone get the number of that bus?”

She blinked and looked around. “...who are you? What are you doing here?” she called out to the new arrivals, dropping into an almost defensive stance.

“....de-aging ray? I think I’d remember that one.”

"Uhh... what?" she says very eloquently.

"I'm in charge here," the winged wonder said, sliding in in front of Will. "Something is very, very wrong here. We've got about three times as many people as we did when we came in.

Did Wisdom send you?"

The winged woman finally seems to get her bearings and looks at Nailah, "Mom? What are you doing here?"

Tosh noted Will's uniform and made an educated guess.

"I... don't know who that is. But I'm guessing you aren't in Kansas anymore."

"In charge of what? Talking non-sense?" She seems to be gearing up to go head to head with the pretty angel-boy when the rainbow-winged girl's sentence completely derails her.

"Okay first of all, whaaaaaat?" Apparently there is no second of all.

Toshiro Narumi wrote:Tosh noted Will's uniform and made an educated guess.

"I... don't know who that is. But I'm guessing you aren't in Kansas anymore."

"Alright, I'll play along. Where are we, then?"

Haley let her eyes linger on Ryan for a moment, he’s too pretty, I hope we don’t have to fight...

Her eyes widened and she looked at Nailah and then back to the other winged new arrival in surprise at what she called her.

“Whoa. Wait. Shit. Are we doing this...alternate dimension bullshit AGAIN? Will. Or...guy that looks like Will...We’re in Maldon. Under the Lighthouse at the school.” Haley replied looking around frantically.

"Yes. Yes we are. And where did...the rest of you come from?" Will said, taking a deep breath and looking around, patiently.

"The school? What school? This place has been abandoned for years..."

"Xavier's University. 2019 if that helps."

The winged woman is snapped out of her staring-not-staring at Nailah, "Oh shit. The Institute kids..." Her face takes a far away cast that Nailah is probably all-too-familiar with before she winces and puts a hand to her head, "Damn. That hurts. Something's seriously wrong."

“Hot guy with wings, where are YOU from? Or when?” she added after Tosh.

Toshiro Narumi wrote:"Xavier's University. 2019 if that helps."

"Wait, 2019? It's 2015."

"It's 2021. And the school is in London, not here. Team 1 was called out here because of reports of a dimensional disturbance..."

"Wait, no, it's 2035. I swear to Isis if this is another Skrull trick, I'm going to melt your brains."

Tosh pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh boy. A multiple reality collision."

"There's only one Skrull around and she's cool, so back off, Rainbow-Wings."

“Fuck me. This is going to be a mess. I have a migraine already.”

She looked to her ex hesitantly, “Tosh can you do...you know...some sciencey shit to like...see if all of this is true?”

"It's not 'Rainbow-Wings', it's Miranda, Miranda Weaver-McManus. Or Seer if you're hung up on 'mutant names'."

At that Nailah bursts out laughing, some of the tension falling away at the sheer ridiculousness of that statement.

"I can't here. I had to leave my multi-scanner outside."

"Sam and Professor Weaver have kids now?" Will said, rubbing his temples. "This is going to give me a headache."

"Alright, let's...let's try to get organized, here. A.S.H.L.I.E. reported a disturbance in the Mastermind crystal computer, which has been linked to the dimensional incursions we've been facing. Does that...sound remotely familiar to anyone else?"

"Except for the crystal computer part that kinda sounds like what she was talking about, yeah."

"We had noted some spatial and temporal distortions, yes."

Haley looked puzzled by the physics. Well. Biology? of Sam and Nailah having kids.

“We. Well all of our electronics went absolutely crazy about twenty minutes ago,” she replied, snapping out of it and replying to Will and adding onto the others’ replies. “I don’t think our headmistress knew about any of it...we generally know that most of the crazy concentrates on the Lighthouse though so when shit went haywire we came running.”

"We received a broken warning message to come to this cave and reset something. Whoever it was accused us of causing it."

"The 'crazy' is because this is a dimensional nexus; a crossing point between realities. Are you accessing A.S.H...errr, your A.S.H.L.I.E now? Can she confirm the integrity of your crystals?"

"No, no, no. There were reports of a break-in at old Braddock Manor. Because this is still X-Corp property, we were tasked to come out and see what was going on, and we found all...this."

Tosh pointed to the crystals around them.

"You mean those crystals?"